Recipe: Kochi Pathar Jhol

Lean meat, chunks of potatoes make it a home staple of Bengal. The tasty add ons make it a 'never say no’ dish.

Bong Eats

1. In a mortar & pestle, add 15 gms roughly chopped garlic and 40 gms roughly chopped ginger. make it into a paste.

2. In a kadai, heat 60 gms mustard oil until it smokes gently and turns pale yellow.

3. Temper with 4 dry red chillies, 6 bay leaves, 6 green cardamom, 2 inch cinnamon, 6 cloves. add 400 gms sliced onions and 10 gms sugar (sugar helps to caramelise the onions). fry onions on medium heat for 15 minutes or until brown.

4. Gather oil on one sideof tha kadai, then add 10 gms turmeric powder, 4 gms red chilli powder and 6 gms kashmiri red chilli powder. frying turmeric powder and red chilli powder directly in oil enhances colour. mix it with onions.

5. Then add ginger garlic paste prepared earlier. fry on medium heat for 3 minutes.

6. Add 100 gms beaten yogurt. stir it well. cook on low heat for 3 minutes. then add 15 gms green chilli paste, 3 gms coriander powder, salt to taste.

7. When oil seperates and onions are nice brown in colour, add mutton pieces (no need to marinate). saute on medium heat for 15 minutes.

8. Add 1.8 to 2 litres of water. cover and simmer until the meat is cooked (it takes around 1.5 hours). stir every 15 minutes. we are cooking mutton in a kadai.

9. With 40 minutes remaining, add 300 gms potatoes cut into 5 cm chunks.

10. When meat and potatoes are both tender, add 1/2 tsp bengali garam masala. serve it hot with rice!

Tips

1. Use kochi patha or young goat's meat for this recipe.

2. You can cook mutton either in a kadai or a pressure cooker. it tastes better when cooked in a kadai.

3. If cooking in a pressure cooker add meat, potatoes, 500 gms water and pressure cook on low flame for 30 minutes.

4. Cooking in a kadai makes a difference to texture of meat and consistency of curry.

5. We do not fry the potatoes as boiling them directly in the curry produces juicier potatoes.